Advice on where to live, outside of CO, for best mountain adventures?

[Codyhill1991]

Hey everyone. It's been a minute since I've been on the forum but this community has always come through for me so I'm here with a strange set of questions.

Long story short, I'm in a position to live wherever I want and have housing taken care of, but I might have to settle in one place for an extended time rather than moving around to get all the good places. I am leaving Colorado for now, and I'm trying to decide where would be a good place to focus my search that has the right balance of beautiful backpacking/alpine lakes/some solitude and challenging summits to hike/scramble to. I am solo, and comfortable with Colorado class 3 and class 4 if the rock is right, but I'm not a strong technical climber.

The obvious answer is the Sierra. Amazing 14ers and 13ers to climb, cool towns, a huge hiking/climbing community, etc. I have spent quite a bit of time there and love it, but I was wondering about some other places.

Montana - obviously, there is absolutely epic backpacking in Glacier National Park, but I know nothing about peakbagging there and I know nothing about the rest of the state.
If the harder Colorado 14ers are at the top of my comfort zone, are there a lot of fun/enjoyable/challenging peaks that would be similar to that within a few hours of Kalispell? What about Bozeman? I don't know if the peaks over there are too tough and would love to read your TRs or hear your comparisons to peaks in CO.
What would be the best town to set up in?

Same question applies for the Boise area, or any other parts of Idaho where there's a sizable town nearby.
I'm already familiar as well with what's available in Washington and Wyoming, but if anyone could shed light on the hiking in Montana and Idaho for someone who loves long uphill slogs and beautiful scenery and solo-friendly scrambling I'd love to hear it.

[Scott P]

Idaho has really nice mountains, but I'd pick somewhere else in the state rather than Boise.

[Codyhill1991]

Idaho has really nice mountains, but I'd pick somewhere else in the state rather than Boise.

Where would you suggest? I've never been anywhere in the state.

[Scott P]

Idaho has really nice mountains, but I'd pick somewhere else in the state rather than Boise.

Where would you suggest? I've never been anywhere in the state.

It depends on what you consider to be a sizable town. Stanley, Ketchum, Salmon, Arco, Challis, and Makay are all close to nice mountains.

Even Twin Falls is better than Boise, but it has no where near the access to cool mountains as the above.

For a big city, Boise has OK access to mountains, but it has similar access to Denver, but not as good as Salt Lake or even Vegas.

In Idaho the smaller towns are much better than Boise for access to the mountains and spectacular hiking areas.

[Carl_Healy]

Just going to throw out Anchorage, as I've passed through a couple times for work and always thought I'd enjoy living there if I wasn't already in Colorado.
Not like I've extensively researched it though.

Certainly some pros and cons to Alaska.
Kinda expensive and that latitude is pretty darn high...
Also earthquake prone but so is California.

[Scott P]

Certainly some pros and cons to Alaska.
Kinda expensive and that latitude is pretty darn high...
Also earthquake prone but so is California.

Long nights in winter seem like the biggest challenge.

[Geckser]

It depends on what you consider to be a sizable town. Stanley, Ketchum, Salmon, Arco, Challis, and Makay are all close to nice mountains.

No offence Scott but I don't think anyone in their right mind would consider Stanley, Arco, Challis or Makay to be a sizable town. Challis is the biggest (of those 4) and has a population of 920 people. Additionally, while I like and have spent quite a lot of time in those towns living there would be quite the culture shock coming from Colorado (with the exception of Ketchum, and Salmon to a lesser extent). I will just say that there are quite a lot of confederate flags flying in that neck of the woods and the most popular businesses in the off season are seedy and depressing bars.

I happen to think that Idaho Falls is all right if you don't mind Mormons (closer to Montana and the Tetons to boot) but honestly if I was a destination hiker/climber who wanted to live in a sizable town I wouldn't be looking in Idaho. Some of the big wilderness areas are stunning but the drives are significant and the mountains tend to be a little less striking when compared to neighboring states. The Sawtooths/White Clouds/Lost River Range/Frank are all certainly worth seeing and the towns you listed have their charms (or I wouldn't keep going back)!

[Scott P]

No offence Scott but I don't think anyone in their right mind would consider Stanley, Arco, Challis or Makay to be a sizable town.

True. They are small towns for sure.

There just aren't any large towns in Idaho that area really close to the best mountains that I can think of. The main population centers are in the Snake River Plain and aren't that close to the really good mountains. I don't think Boise would be much better than Denver. Twin Falls might be. I also think Idaho Falls is OK, but it isn't that close either, at least compared to other places (even in Colorado). My daughter is living up there now and I had a lot of other family there so we used to visit often. It's an hour and a half or more each way to anywhere that I'd call spectacular.

All the best mountains in Idaho I can think of aren't that close to the larger towns and only the small towns are really close to the best mountains. Driggs would be fine too, but is also a small town.

I haven't spent much time in the far north Idaho though, nor around Lewiston.

Here are the largest cities and towns in Idaho:

https://www.idaho-demographics.com/cities_by_population

Additionally, while I like and have spent quite a lot of time in those towns living there would be quite the culture shock coming from Colorado...I will just say that there are quite a lot of confederate flags flying in that neck of the woods and the most popular businesses in the off season are seedy and depressing bars.

A lot of Colorado is like that too (especially Boebert country), but I know what you mean. I lived in Craig for 14.5 years and it's like that for sure.

If you want to be both really close to the Idaho mountains and don't want that kind of culture you'd have to go to places like Ketchum, Sun Valley, or Driggs.

[Codyhill1991]

It depends on what you consider to be a sizable town. Stanley, Ketchum, Salmon, Arco, Challis, and Makay are all close to nice mountains.

No offence Scott but I don't think anyone in their right mind would consider Stanley, Arco, Challis or Makay to be a sizable town. Challis is the biggest (of those 4) and has a population of 920 people. Additionally, while I like and have spent quite a lot of time in those towns living there would be quite the culture shock coming from Colorado (with the exception of Ketchum, and Salmon to a lesser extent). I will just say that there are quite a lot of confederate flags flying in that neck of the woods and the most popular businesses in the off season are seedy and depressing bars.

I happen to think that Idaho Falls is all right if you don't mind Mormons (closer to Montana and the Tetons to boot) but honestly if I was a destination hiker/climber who wanted to live in a sizable town I wouldn't be looking in Idaho. Some of the big wilderness areas are stunning but the drives are significant and the mountains tend to be a little less striking when compared to neighboring states. The Sawtooths/White Clouds/Lost River Range/Frank are all certainly worth seeing and the towns you listed have their charms (or I wouldn't keep going back)!

If it makes a difference, I am only looking for summer/fall season and will be in the Flagstaff area during the cold months. I will probably loop Ketchum and Idaho Falls into a recon trip though all the same. My politics are very far left but I don't mind keeping to myself. I'd love to meet other outdoorsy types and make friends out there, but it's not a necessity.

If you were a destination hiker, where would you look, if not Idaho? Any part of Montana a little better off, or should I stick with Bishop or Jackson?

I'm curious if either there's a clear winner between Bozeman and Kalispell. I seem to remember someone saying the peaks available for bagging in Glacier were gnarly and chossy and not all that fun, and that it was more of a park for on trail backpacking to lakes and whatnot. Which I also love, but, balance.

[Dave B]

It depends on what you consider to be a sizable town. Stanley, Ketchum, Salmon, Arco, Challis, and Makay are all close to nice mountains.

Even Twin Falls is better than Boise, but it has no where near the access to cool mountains as the above.

For a big city, Boise has OK access to mountains, but it has similar access to Denver, but not as good as Salt Lake or even Vegas.

In Idaho the smaller towns are much better than Boise for access to the mountains and spectacular hiking areas.

Ah, small Idaho towns, where you can get hepatitis and a meth addiction just by driving though. Salmon's kind of nice though, I lived there for a summer. Quick access to Beaverheads and the rugged and isolated Bitterroots are ~1.5 hours away.

I'm going to upset our local mountain fire dancing bear here with some Boise criticisms, but it's grey and shitty during the winter, hot and filled with wildfire smoke during the summer, and way too far from the mountains, way worse access than Denver. Sawtooths/White Clouds/Pioneers are all a minimum 3 hour drive. Turns most trips into an overnighter unless spending six+ hours in the car for a day trip is your kind of fun.

With that said, Spring is amazing there and it's an awesome place to road trip from. The amount and diversity of epic terrain within 6 hours is hard to beat.

If you ski/board, Bogus Basin being 45 min outside of town is nice, but by the time I left in 2019 the drive up there had gone up to 1-1.5 hours and was starting to get an I70 vibe.

[cougar]

Montana mountain towns are becoming like CO mountain towns, as far as culture and affordability. I know a few people from MT and a couple who moved there. Bozeman in particular. Hiking access is good in those places, startingin town. Red Lodge too, although they are recovering from last years floods. Probably better in towns like Anaconda or Butte. Summers get hot and smoky, but longer daylight. Avoid Idaho.

[Codyhill1991]

Montana mountain towns are becoming like CO mountain towns, as far as culture and affordability. I know a few people from MT and a couple who moved there. Bozeman in particular. Hiking access is good in those places, startingin town. Red Lodge too, although they are recovering from last years floods. Probably better in towns like Anaconda or Butte. Summers get hot and smoky, but longer daylight. Avoid Idaho.

Alright, I think Idaho is out for living. Thank you for the Montana suggestions, that seems like a good place to spend some time. I have to do independent research on making my own list of peaks to-do that somewhat resemble what I enjoy from the Colorado 14er/13er endeavor and go from there on choosing a town.